“You name yourself fire and brimstone, but you’re hardly more than a candle flame and a pinch of salt.”

Aren’t witches female though?

only in harry potter!

“Tell me your name.”

“I beg your pardon? I am called X.”

“Is that what I asked? Tell me your name.”

“Baby bird, listen,” X says, and kisses Y’s forehead. “We’re gonna be okay. Come hell or high water, we’re gonna turn out all right. Bad things happen – awful things – but the world will keep turning, and while we’ve still got hands and breath, we’ve still got time to fix it.”

“You’re wrong,” says Y, and bursts into tears.

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“Okay so here’s the thing: I have superpowers, but I don’t have money. Not everyone has superpowers, so I feel like I can leverage that. So here’s my plan-”

“Become a supervillain and rob a bank.”

“-Join the circus! Wait, what did you say?”

“Uh. Nothing.”

Dead leaves crunch under xir feet as xe walks. At least, xe thinks they’re dead leaves. Xe hopes. It’s dark, and everything is strange.

“I love you desperately, my heart, but you are safer without me. Go, and be happy. I beg of you.”

“However much I may suffer, dearest, there could be no worse torture than being forced to leave your side. Though I may die, it will be no death like the death of my heart in losing you. Also, I’m a grown-ass adult and you can’t tell me what to do, so there.”

“I long for the sweet embrace of Death.”

“Of course you do.”

“To swoon into xir arms at last, to ask for a kiss, to succumb at last to xir tender touch. Ah! What bliss.”

“X, with all the love in my heart, I have some concerns about your child.”

“Why? Xe’s flourishing.”

“Xe’s running around half-naked, covered in mud, and howling like a wild animal while trying to catch and eat grasshoppers with xir bare hands.

“Who am I to deny xir the ability to follow the inexplicable exhortations of xir soul? And anyway, I hear grasshoppers are quite nutritious.”

“The world will not end, today. Tomorrow is a problem we can deal with tomorrow, but for now? Rest.”